The preschoolers are often seen trying to put out fires, or rescue other people. Finding items around the playground and the classroom to use as the hose or the ladder.
When RECE Christine found a giant box in the hallway, she wondered what it could be used for. Would the preschoolers enjoy playing inside it? Could we create something with it? Then she thought the shape of the box would be perfect for a fire truck and began to wonder if the preschoolers knew all the tools in a firetruck and how a fire truck works.
Christine brought the box into the classroom and we began looking up videos on YouTube that explains the parts of a firetruck. We learned that there are many hoses on a firetruck, not just one. We also learned that there isn't just a ladder on the top of the truck, they also have smaller ladders stored in the truck. The firefighters have lots of tools and axes and oxygen tanks for them to access as needed. We also watched a video of how tall the ladder on the top of the truck can go, I definitely don't recommend going on this ladder if you're even a little bit afraid of heights.
Once we learned of all that the firetruck has to offer, we took a look around our classroom to see what we had to make our firetruck. Ellie suggested we use the toy wheels as the wheels for the firetruck. Theo E suggested we use water bottles as the lights of the truck, and Kiera suggested we use Popsicle sticks to make the ladder. We had lots of ideas for how to make the truck, now it was time to get to work.
We started by painting the box red, the preschoolers worked hard and got every inch of it painted. Once the paint was dry we began adding things to the box. We cut a hole in the box so that we could store our tools and hoses.
After we figured out where to put the tools we began making the ladder. The preschoolers had access to Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and glue. Benjamin took a pipe cleaner and tried making the wheels out of it, but he quickly noticed that the pipe cleaners weren't sticking together. Theo E and Kiera worked hard to make some ladders out of the Popsicle sticks. Walter had the brilliant idea that we should make a fire hydrant, because the hose needs to be hooked up to a fire hydrant for the firefighters to get water out of it and put out fires.
We are still working hard on our fire truck and have some more stuff to add. Once we are done I wonder how many fires we will get to put out? What else can we add to our firetruck so we can rescue people?
